From July 5th to 15th, the 16th "Muse" International Youth Art Festival was successfully held in the coastal city of Sozopol, Bulgaria. The team of the Confucius Institute at the University of Veliko Turnovo showcased the elements of Chinese culture at the Art Festival and won quite a number of honors.
During the festival, the CI team participated in the parade arranged by the organizing committee, which attracted wide attention and cheers from the audience along the way. At the opening ceremony, the traditional Chinese dance "Sheng-Sheng-Man" by Chinese teacher Guo Xinyi, the lion dance by Chinese majors at UVT, and the "Wu-Qin-Xi" performed by CI Wushu teacher Borislava Lecheva won the audience's passionate applause. And the 5-day "Chinese Culture Workshop" by the CI team allowed Bulgarians to have a close encounter with Chinese elements, such as tea art, calligraphy, paper-cutting, Chinese knots, traditional costumes, Go and Chinese chess. It also opened a window for tourists from all over the world to understand Chinese culture.
At the closing party, Lai Jinting, a Chinese teacher at CIUVT, sang the masterpiece "A Bulgarian Rose" by the famous Bulgarian singer Pasha Hristova. The audience sang together enthusiastically and warm atmosphere was aroused on the spot. Directors of CI at UVT, Dr. Iskra Mandova and Prof. Dong Yuanxing delivered speeches respectively, expressing their gratitude to the organizer of the Festival for setting up a stage to promote cultural exchanges between different nations. They presented the "Confucius Institute Award" to Mrs. Hristina Krasteva, chair of the organizing committee.
The annual "Muse" International Youth Festival of Arts in Sozopol was initiated and sponsored by Mrs. Iliyana Yotova, Vice President of the Republic of Bulgaria, which covers music, dance, drama, acrobatics, gymnastics, styling and other art forms. In this year’s events, young art elites from Bulgaria, China, Russia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova and other countries gathered together, and brought a rich audio-visual feast to the local people and tourists from all over the world. Participating in the "Muse" International Youth Festival of Arts has greatly enhanced the influence of the Confucius Institute and promoted Bulgarians and international tourists’ interpretation of Chinese culture.